How to use Lightroom Mobile: steps 1-3

01 Log in to the cloud
All you need for Lightroom Mobile is Lightroom 5.4, its companion app, and an Adobe Creative Cloud account. Lightroom 5.4 is available under a perpetual licence, but you don’t get the mobile sync provided by the CC version.

The setup could hardly be simpler: click the Identity Plate in the top left corner of the Lightroom window and log in.

02 Sync your images
Lightroom doesn’t sync your entire photo library, only those Collections you select manually, so it isn’t a way of accessing all your photos on your iPad.

Instead, you use it to show and work on the images in selected Collections. Click the small sync button to the left of the Collection name or right click a Collection and choose the sync option from the menu.

03 Web sharing
Lightroom makes your images visible online via a web browser, both to you and to anyone who has the link (your Collections can also be private). Your Collections are stored at lightroom.adobe.com, where they’re displayed as thumbnails. The gallery doesn’t offer any editing tools, but it’s a great way to show other people your pictures.